Had to do a quick workout before our nanny left. My heavy workouts are probably going to get lumped to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for the time being as those days are nanny days – I’m doing daddy duty on Tuesday and Friday. We’ll see how that goes.

Warm-up was running four pumpkins from the front of our house to the garage. Kinda more fun and something I needed to do.

Then, I did 100 35 lb. kettlebell swings. One double-arm set of 50 and then 13/12/12/13 L/R/L/R.

Workout was:

- 5x5 53lb. kettlebell push press, superset with
- 5x5 pull-ups with minimal kipping (kipping increased towards the latter sets)

Total time was inside 30 minutes. I’m writing this Wednesday morning and I am sore all over my upper body, including my chest. Go figure.

Warm-up:

- 60 jumping jacks
- 20 25 lb. dumbbell presses
- 20 25 lb. double dumbbell rows
- Mile on the treadmill (time: 9:40; first run in my KSO Five Fingers, incidentally; have I mentioned how much I dislike running? Would be nice to get down to an 8 minute mile.)

Workout:

(Largest dumbbell available was 50)

5x5 160 lb. machine bench press, superset with
5x8 2x50 lb. dumbbell row
5x5 Jumping high knees (Not sure if that’s what these are called, they are squat jumps where you touch knees to chest)

Nice and relatively quick hotel workout here at the Westin Long Beach, California. Here for a wedding (which actually is already in progress and I should be there, but my wonderful wife let me skip out on some of it since it’s from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm!). First non-kettlebell challenge workout in over a week! I am seriously ready to be done with the 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge (only 5x333 more to go on that front!).

Warm-up was one round of C8B300 (Get heart rate up, took about 5 minutes).

Workout:

5x5 Single-arm push press, 70 lb. kettlebell
Rest 2 minutes between each set

5x5 Single-arm row, 70 lb. kettlebell
Rest 2 minutes between each set

5x10 press (on the floor), 2x53 lb. kettlebell
Rest 2 minutes between each set

5x5 single-leg dead-lift, 2x53 lb. kettlebell
Rest 2 minutes between each set

I had no idea how much harder the dead-lifts would be using two 53 lb. kettlebells as compared to last Friday when I used one 70 lb. kettlebell. Major difference in exertion and balancing.

Warm-up:

30 seconds work / 15 seconds rest
35 lb. kettlebell
Figure-8 Uppercuts
Single-arm swings, alternating w/flip
Figure-8 Hot Potatoes
Swing/flip/catch press/flip/swing
2x

Time: 6 minutes

Workout:

5x5 Double 53 lb. kettlebell military press
5x5 Double 53 lb. kettlebell row
Rest 2 minutes between every set, alternating exercises

8x5 Double 53 lb. kettlebell front squat
8x5 Double 53 lb. kettlebell swing
Rest 2 minutes between every set, alternating exercises

5x4 Double 53 lb. kettlebell windmills
Rest 2 minutes between every set

Time: 1:04:07

Total workout time: 1:10:07

Warmed up with:

Quarter-mile run
20 50 lb. dumbbell swings
10 decline push-ups
10 air squats
10 sit-ups
x2
Warm-up time: approx. 12 minutes

Workout:

5x6 supersets of:
50 lb. incline dumbbell press (100 lb. total)
50 lb. bent over dumbbell row (100 lb. total)
Rest one minute between sets

5x6 supersets of:
50 lb. dumbbell front squats (100 lb. total)
50 lb. double dumbbell swings (100 lb. total)
Rest one minute between sets

5x5 supersets of:
45 lb. dumbbell butterflies
30 lb. dumbbell reverse butterflies
20 lb. dumbbell lateral raises
Rest one minute between sets

5x6 supersets of:
35 lb. hammercurls
50 lb. bench overhead tricep extensions (only one 50 lb. dumbbell)
Rest one minute between sets

This portion of the workout took about 50 minutes.

Total workout time was a tad over one hour. Felt like a solid workout. I was seeing stars momentarily during the front squat/dumbbell swing supersets.

Still liking the reduction in training volume. It is amazing to observe the positive correlation between workout volume and appetite. Higher volume training easily transfers into a larger appetite. It’s a subtle effect, mind you, but undeniable.

So I’m reminded of something Brad Pilon has said recently, which is basically that your training should be aimed at increasing your strength/physical fitness, not at trying to lose weight. This has a paradoxical feel to it in that its often said that you need to eat a lot to gain mass. I think the better advice is to mind your appetite when it comes to your training (your appetite will guide you best) and cut your food intake (diet) if you want to lose weight. Trying to mind both masters at the same time is probably a recipe for disaster, which again makes a wonderful case for fasting as the dichotomy of fasting/feasting can be easily matched to rest & recovery/training.

After recovering from the carb-binge and alcohol hangover and fueling up on a few Krispy Kreme donuts (how about those refeed/carb-up/cheat days, right? Nothing like eating crap and feeling like crap), I went for a strength heavy workout:

5x5:

70 lb. kettlebell push press, superset with
70 lb. bent over rows

Since I needed some kinda chest specific exercise, I did super-slow decline push-ups (feet elevated on a chair) – five reps then five more super-slow regular push-ups. Then I did some curls with my 35 lb. kettlebell (doing enough to get near exhaustion but not quite there).

Finished the workout with 6 20 yard hill* sprints. I was intending on doing ten but after the sixth, my right ankle felt funny and I didn’t want to provoke injury. I did five standing jumps and called it a day.

*It was up a long driveway – slight incline (not a huge hill but it did the trick well enough).

About 26 hours fasted:

Warmed up with some 35 lb. kettlebell ATB uppercut flips, ATB lunges and general ATB.

Then …

5x5 supersets of:

53 lb. kettlebell Renegade rows
Double 53 lb. kettlebell push press (last set did singles)

5x7 supersets of:

Double 53 lb. kettlebell front squats
Double 53 lb. kettlebell swings

2x5 53 lb. kettlebell windmills

5x5 70 lb. kettlebell high-pulls

Going for a 5x5 workout using four different exercises:

First superset/combo:

• Double kettlebell military press (and push press) @ 53 lb. kettlebell - 5x6
• Double kettlebell row (same weight) - 5x6

And then:

• Double kettlebell front squat @ 53 lb. kettlebell - 5x6
• Double kettlebell swing @ 53 lb. kettlebell - 5x5

Over the past 24 hours, I tried a carb refeed sticking mostly to cereals/breads (not really eating sugary stuff at all, including fruit) plus a bag o’ popcorn. As opposed to prior “cheat days,” this time around I avoided alcohol, which I think made for an improved refeed/cheat experience as I was able to add carbs to my diet without overfeeding on junk and drinking a bunch of empty calories (alcohol). We’ll see how it works out.

Warmed up with 5 rounds of 30/30 KB drills – ATBs, ATB lunges, ATB uppercuts, alternating swings, and one more round of regular ATBS: all with a 53 lb kettlebell.

Rested about two minutes.

Then, the following superset in 5x5 fashion with a minute of rest in between each superset:

• Double KB push press @ 53 lb. kettlebell
• Double KB bent over row @ 53 lb. kettlebell

Rest a minute or two, then the following superset combo:

• Double KB dead-lift 5x5
• Double KB front squat 5x4

The lower body part of this workout was particularly intense, so I ended up taking a few breaths between the two exercises. I really don’t enjoy front squats … damn if they weren’t such a good exercise!

I had contemplated ending with the C8B300 and started off doing the jumping jacks. They went ok. It was when I started doing the spider-man push-ups that I realized I was totally gassed. Thus, I finished by doing 5 rounds of 30 seconds work / 30 seconds rest of farmer walks with both 53 lb. kettlebells.

Pretty good weight-lifting workout!

Warmed up with 5 rounds of 30/30 (work/rest) kettlebell drills with my 35 lb. kettlebell.

Then 5x5 of:

• Single leg 53 lb. dead lifts
• Single arm 53 lb. push presses
• Single arm 53 lb. snatches

Ended it with 10 rounds of 12 53 lb. swings - each round starting on the minute.